Minecraft

How to Host a Minecraft Server with Evolve

If you're reading this, you're probably interested in hosting a Minecraft server using Evolve. Well, you're in luck, as this guide will offer step-by-step instructions to do exactly that! Why use Evolve to host your Minecraft server? With Evolve, you don't need to worry about things like your public IP address, router configuration, or port forwarding. Evolve makes it really easy to let your friends play Minecraft with you over the internet. Let's get started!

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Create Your Minecraft Party

Evolve's magic happens in the party system. Parties provide text chat rooms, voice chat, and something called virtual private networking--or VPN for short. Party VPNs act just like your local network at your home or at a LAN party. To create a party for your Minecraft server, start by finding the main Evolve window and clicking on the [Multiplayer] tab at the top. The multiplayer tab has a silver button in the upper right that says [Create Party]. Click the [Create Party] button. A new window will appear asking if you'd like to create a public party or a private party. If you'd like anyone on Evolve to be able to join your party or you'd like to advertise your party to other players on Evolve, you'll want to create a public party. If you only want to play with specific friends, you'll want to create a private party. Select the type you'd like and click the [Host] button. If you aren't sure, select public party. At this point, you should be in your very own Evolve party! Now that you're in the party, you can use the gear icon in the bottom right to set up the party name, and tag the party for Minecraft. If you look to your right, you'll see the party roster and your virtual IP address (you only need this if you're manually configuring a Minecraft server using Minecraft_Server.exe or Bukkit). We'll come back to this party interface in a bit.

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Host Your Minecraft Server

Before Minecraft 1.3 was released, the only way to host a Minecraft server was to use either the official Minecraft server software, called Minecraft_Server.exe, or a third party server like Bukkit. Both of these involved a considerable amount of work. Minecraft 1.3+ has added a new feature, called "Open to LAN," to let your friends join your world. It's the easiest way to host a Minecraft server and we recommend it for anyone new to hosting. To make use of "Open to LAN," just start Minecraft the way you normally do, enter your single player world, and open the game menu by hitting the escape key. You should see a button in the menu labeled [Open to LAN]. Click on it, select the game mode, and click the [Start LAN World] at the bottom of your screen. That's all there is to it! As long as your friends are able to join your party, they'll be able to connect to your server by clicking on the [Multiplayer] button on Minecraft's main menu. If you absolutely want to host your own Minecraft server using dedicated server software, you'll want to read up about how to do so using some other guides. Whenever you see a reference to configure an IP address for the server, you should make sure to use the IP address you see below your name on the right side of the party tab you opened in the previous step.

Invite Your Friends or Advertise Your Party

Now that you've created a party and you have a Minecraft server running, it's time to bring your friends in to join you or use Evolve's matchmaker to advertise your party to strangers. To invite specific friends, either right click on them in your friends list and choose the "Invite to Party" menu item or use the [+] button in the lower right-hand corner of the party roster to open the invite dialog. If you're hosting a public party, you'll have access to a special URL you can send your friends to get them to join your party. If your party is private, you can simply invite your friends using their nicknames on Evolve. If you don't have any friends online, don't worry! You can use Evolve's matchmaker to advertise your party to everyone on Evolve. Just click the giant red flag icon in the upper right of your party tab and sit back and relax--Evolve will do all the hard work for you. When other players say they are interested in Minecraft, they'll automatically be asked if they'd like to join your party (along with other Minecraft parties on Evolve). That's all there is to it!

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Troubleshooting & Related Guides

If you're running in to any problems, don't forget to check out our general guides.

Ok so if you want to play with your friends that are in the same house as you then... the LAN server works but if you want to let others from around the world then... Make one yourself or rent one. There are plenty of tutorials on youtube.com here's one: Search Minecraft Server Creator and click on the top one

ok so after i follow all the steps and i open in to LAN to play with friends connected to the same network.......how will they join? as far as i know they have to go to multiplayer, direct connect and type something can someone help me?